


Indigo Stain

by gay_ships_on_road_trips



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autistic Karkat Vantas, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Gen, Idk what to tag this tbh, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Interspecies Relationship(s), Kidnapping, M/M, Meteorstuck, Multi, Mute Dave Strider, Possible smut later, Psychological Horror, Psychological Trauma, Rape Recovery, Recovered Memories, Sober Gamzee Makara, Torture, Unreliable Narrator, because I said so, but selectively, so is karkat but mostly bc he can’t speak in english
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29827842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gay_ships_on_road_trips/pseuds/gay_ships_on_road_trips
Summary: Gamzee went insane. Nepeta sacrificed herself for Equius’ safety. When the humans arrive, something is odd. There’s no angry, nubby horned troll to cuss them out.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Equius Zahhak, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas/Equius Zahhak, Gamzee Makara & Karkat Vantas, Karkat Vantas/Equius Zahhak, Nepeta Leijon/Equius Zahhak
Kudos: 14





	Indigo Stain

It had been precisely 2,628,002 seconds since Karkat went missing.

The eternal ticking of time drove Dave insane, a constant reminder of another second where Karkat could be in danger, if somehow he was not a rotting carcass.

2,714,402 seconds ago, a day before he went vanished, a massacre happened. Dave isn’t quite sure of what _exactly_ went down, but he knows people died and Karkat’s ex-moirail was the culprit of it all. Only Equius survived, contrary to what Rose had seen in her light, which worried Dave of the timeline.

To him, now, it didn’t matter. He couldn’t give a shit if this timeline was doomed. It didn’t mean anything without Karkat.

The halls of the meteor stay oddly silent. Karkat’s shouting and stomping that he’s heard stories of are gone. Kanaya is busy mourning the supposed death of her new moirail. Sollux is worried sick and is getting sicker by the day. Vriska and Terezi never show their faces, going into the hallways of the meteor to do Gog knows what. The mayor made his town of cans, making monuments to those he had lost. Rose was comforting Kanaya. Equius mourned the dead he couldn’t save.

At least, if Karkat is still alive.

That leaves Dave.

Dave Strider, the cool kid, the Knight of Time. His titles seemed worthless now. He hadn’t realized how much the short, grumpy troll made him smile until he went missing.

He’d been missing for so long, everybody assumed he was dead. They gave up on searching. Only two people continued the search.

Equius and Dave.

The two became close friends quickly, to everyone’s surprise. Terezi always said Dave smelled like he had a flush crush, whatever that means.

Not like he has one, anyway. No way he could crush on anyone but Karkat (which he doesn’t, anyway). Even if the guy’s everything he likes. He definitely doesn’t like Equius like that. Definitely.

His internal clock ticks, a horrible feeling growing every second Karkat isn’t there. His mind supplies horrid possibilities.

Maybe Gamzee’s beat him to death. Dismembered him. Eviscerated him. Used his organs and blood as paint across his canvas and the vents. Beheaded him with his own sickles. Done horrible things to him, in one way or another.

Equius had suggested possibilities. His weren’t as violent. They still made Dave sick to his stomach.

He prayed this search would be different.

“This is the only part of the meteor we have not searched extensively.” Equius’ gruff voice cuts into Dave’s thoughts. His clock startles.

“Right.” He says, unsteadily. “Pester me if you find anything, even if it seems minor. We need every lead we can get.”

Equius nods. “Oh dear, this place is big. I will start searching down there,” he points down an angled hallway, “and you go down that way.” He pointed down the other hall, vents lining the wall.

“Equius?” Dave asks. Equius makes a “hm?” and looks down at him. “If we see anybody else down here... that Gamzee got to... I’m sorry.”

Equius stiffs, but then nods. “I hope... I will be okay. I am strong enough.”

The clock ticks in time with Equius’ footsteps. It’s oddly peaceful as Dave starts floating to avoid making noise himself. The hallways hum as always and the vents crinkle and groan. It sends shivers down Dave’s spine, makes him grab at his weapon in his deck.

The hallways and rooms are empty, for the most part. Bugs on the walls, in the cracks of the floor, bits of broken metal and material. He captchalogues it anyway, in case the others need it.

He floats and searches for a while (2 hours, 32 minutes and 53 seconds), until his phone goes off with a notification.

CT: D—> Dave, I have found something. 

CT: D—> But you are not going to like it.

TG: what do you mean

TG: what did you find

CT: D—> Where is your current location?

TG: its like a room with a bunch of broken devices and shit

TG: theres this pile of broken glass and

TG: a puddle of green

He stops typing for a moment.

CT: D—> I see.

CT: D—> Look to your left. There is a door with my symbol on it.

Dave turns to his left and sees that exact door. How did he miss it before?

CT: D—> I will open the door. Hang on a moment.

Dave waits for a second, and the door slides open to show Equius’ rugged figure. Dave rushes past him and looks at the room fully with the light of his phone.

He wasn’t prepared for the sight in front of him.

A table of heads. John’s hammer. Those catch his eye. Three heads sit on the table, painted with olive, violet and fuschia. Bronze smears on the wall and a troll’s head put delicately on a throne of Faygo boxes. His massive bull horns are draped in carnival lights.

The thing that made his stomach churn the most was the candy red drawings.

Drawings of the trolls, the humans, two... green skeletons? Drawn across the entire wall. Purple honks and clown faces spread around it.

Dave looks back to Equius, who looks solemnly towards the olive troll’s head.

“I believe... the highblood has done what we had feared.” Equius states, quietly.

Dave might throw up.

“Equius, I...” he can’t find words. If he opens his mouth, he might spill everything he’s held back for thirteen years.

Equius seemed to be about to reply, when the echoing thud of a blade hits the ground.

It’s right behind them.

It disturbs both of them and makes them turn to find the source, defensive stance ready.

They see _him_.

Specifically, they see what must _have_ been Karkat. Dave barely got to meet the guy, but this... looks different from who he was told about when he arrived.

The mess of hair and nubby horns remained the same, but the harsh, angry pose, a voice incapable of going below normal volume, had all disappeared. In the shell of it was a troll filled with pure terror. Scrapes, cuts, even across his horns. Stained red skin, clothes much too big for him. The capricorn symbol has been changed to red, but the purple spotted pants stayed the same. It was dirty and slightly torn, held on by bits of his old sweater.

His sickle was raised, the other on the floor. He must’ve dropped the sickle when he came up to attack them, considering how much he’s trembling and shaking.

The thought makes Dave sick.

Equius knocks the sickle out of his hand, using the back of his wrist, indigo starting to trickle down, as he holds the mutant’s hands together.

The hoarse voice, a hint of Karkat’s, screams out, kicking and struggling, making clicking bug noises in fear.

“We’re gonna help you,” Dave dove to action. holding down Karkat’s lower body. “Stop struggling, it’s just us! Dave and Equius!”

He continues to scream and struggle, continuing those noises Dave can’t understand.

Equius shot a concerned look. “He’s trying to get Gamzee to come back.”

Dave looked between the vents and Karkat, before finally grabbing a broken pipe out from his deck.

“Sorry about this,” Dave winces, as he whacks the pipe against Karkat’s head.

“What did that clown do?....” Kanaya was the only one to talk into the silence.

“Kanaya... I believe he’s... not too badly injured,” Rose tried, before Kanaya’s chainsaw revved.

“I’m going to kill him! I’m going to kill him a million times! I will track him down in the dream bubbles, Gog so help me, and rip his limbs apart, sew them on and do it again!!” She screeches, a fury in her eyes that makes every person in the hall jump back a few feet.

Equius had carried Karkat back to the others after they knocked him out. Kanaya and Rose stopped them when they had started walking to the main block.

The impossible happened. Kanaya had used the full volume of her voice. As everybody knows, this means somebody is going to die tonight if they don’t do exactly as she says, when she says.

“What did he do to him?! The _bastard_!!” Kanaya shouted, her skin lighting up. Yeah, someone’s gonna die.

“He snuck up on us,” Dave chimed. “He dropped his sickle, but if he hadn’t, we might have been killed. He kept trying to call for Gamzee... wanting him to help him.”

“The highblood didn’t show up, thankfully,” Equius adds.

“Equius, David, kindly shut up,” and yep, jaws are shut, “I’m getting Vriska and Sollux. I will take care of him from here. I would appreciate your help, Rose.”

“Wait a minute,” Dave chimes, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Kanaya’s chainsaw continues to rev as she glares at him, before sighing in defeat and changing her chainsaw back to her lipstick. “You are right. I apologize for my outburst, but I am... quite frazzled. I will go find Sollux and Vriska, tell them the news of their respective quadrantmate, you shall keep him pacified until I return. Rose, I’d like you to stay with your ecto-brother and make sure he won’t mess anything up,”

“Hey!” Dave cuts in, but is cut off almost immediately by Kanaya, “Equius, stay to restrain Karkat if need be.”

Equius nods gruffly as Kanaya returns it, turning on her phone to use Trollian as she walks away from the group.

It’s silent for a while, before Rose finally cuts in. “Do you have any idea of what happened to him?”

Dave shrugs, “he looks like he’s been... tortured, or something.”

Equius chimes in. “Gamzee, albeit cold and ruthless currently, has always been a good moirail to Karkat. His injuries are minimal, which leads me to believe he has treasured him, which must have had an effect on his thinkpan.”

“That’s possible,” Rose says, “his ‘pan’ as you call it must be a little... stirred.”

Equius slightly shifts to allow Karkat’s body in his arms to adjust, seeming to regain consciousness. “Perhaps we should take him to his block. It may help him.”

“Yeah, maybe it’ll help him chill the fuck out a bit. I captchalogued his sickles earlier, but I don’t know if he has any more.” Dave says.

Rose shifts a bit, “Kanaya may need my help. I know she told me to stay here, but, I believe Equius is enough supervision for you, brother dearest.”

Before Dave can retort, Rose had already left. Equius nudges Dave a bit, catching him off guard.

“His block is about ten minutes away. We’d get moving.”

The two begin walking, only the sound of their footsteps in the long hallways of the meteor. They cross to the hallway of their bedrooms, Dave thinks, filled with empty mourning spots.

“Equius,” Dave starts, “what exactly... did Gamzee do? I know people died, but... what’s the full story?”

Equius sighs. “The highblood... became sober. He was not able to eat the sopor supply anymore. He went through withdrawals, I believe, and with that came an unsteady rage of the Grand Highblood descendant.”

“Did he kill those other two? The wizard-looking guy and the pink blood?”

“Fuschia. Their names are Eridan and Feferi. Eridan went insane on his own, for what purpose I do not know. He killed Feferi and Kanaya, however Kanaya became a rainbow drinker. Gamzee only killed...”

Dave supplies for him, “Nepeta?”

Equius nods, “yes. My moi- My meowrail.”

Dave looks up at Equius. “I don’t know what it’s like to lose someone... but I can only imagine it sucks ass.”

“Yes, I suppose that is one way to put it.”

The two stop at a door with the cancer symbol on it. Equius opens the door with ease (somehow managing to neither break the door nor drop Karkat), showing Dave what Karkat’s room looks like for the first time.

It’s awfully dull, with barely any color to show besides his posters and shelf of romcom movies and romance novels. His weird slime-filled cocoon thing is near the corner, obviously unused entirely for quite a while. His laptop is still open, albeit turned off, and his watch is partially cracked on the floor. There’s an oddly placed pile of blankets and pillows, clearly gifts made by Kanaya and Rose, along with various things in the pile such as his books or gifts from the other trolls. There’s an odd block of what Dave can only guess is metal or concrete, looking almost like a prison bed, if it had some sort of mattress in it and cyberpunk bullshit.

“We installed restblocks similar to that of humans,” Equius says suddenly, “I will put him there for time being.”

Equius walks over to the slab and gently places Karkat down, taking a step back. He steps on one of the stray romcoms, making it crack.

“Fiddlesticks,” he mutters, and Karkat stirs a bit in his sleep.

They both hold their breath for a moment as Karkat cracks an eye open, although slowly. He doesn’t seem to register them right away, his candy red irises going between the two for a second before his other eye opens.

When it does, though, he jumps up and scrambles to the very corner of the bed, farthest away from both of them.

He starts saying something in that bug-like noise again, a nervous chittering. Equius furrows his brow in concern.

“Karkat, you remember us, right?” Dave says. Karkat simply looks at him, somehow shrinking more into the corner.

Equius starts talking in that bug-like collection of noises, confusing Dave. Karkat clicks and chirrs softly in response, and the two seem to have a small conversation in the noises.

“He remembers _me_ ,” Equius turns to Dave, “but not you. He says he can understand what you’re saying. He said he can’t speak in English, though.”

“Why not?”

Karkat mumbles something, and Equius furrows his brow, but doesn’t translate.

Karkat’s less frantic, but is still acutely aware of the two, his teeth no longer bared. Dave wasn’t sure what he expected Karkat to look like, besides nubby horns and short and angry, but what he’s seeing... _isn’t_ it. Karkat looks almost small, like a scared animal. Something feral without rage, but terror, keeping itself calm.

That is, until Terezi bursts in with an excited chirping.

“ _Karkat_?!” She says, unable to see but looking around nonetheless. Karkat makes a startled screech as he reaches for his sickles, finding them not in his deck.

Terezi sniffs everywhere and practically crashes into Karkat, embracing him tightly. She doesn’t even seem to register Dave and Equius.

“Karkles!! It’s felt like sweeps! Holy shit, I’ve missed your candy scent, why the fuck weren’t you able to leave Gamzee?? You can overpower his clown ass easily! You had the meteor fucking _terrified_! Fuck him, my hate for him is _STRICTLY_ platonic now, what the _FUCK_!” She basically drools all over the panicked troll in her arms, a teal colored tongue across gray skin, red and blue tears swirling to an odd purple down their faces.

Karkat’s tears, however, aren’t from joy.

He bares his teeth and tears his claws between Terezi’s shirt in a loud rip, making her jump back as he continues to claw and kick in distress.

Dave and Equius can’t risk getting close, with how Karkat is frantically trying to find an escape. He manages to get Terezi off of him with a snarl, making her fall back onto her ass, as his claws drip with teal.

When Karkat looks like he’s about to bolt, Equius grabs him and pins his wrists down. Karkat’s panicked chirps become full-on screeches, and Terezi backs up to Dave with a confused expression.

Dave thinks quickly and simply blocks the door when Karkat manages to break free of Equius’ grip (for some ungodly reason). Karkat seems to realize he has nowhere to go and instead crawls under the hanging bed and starts growling long and deep, golden eyes peering underneath in warning.

They’re all left standing for a moment, catching their breath, when Terezi finally says, “That isn’t Karkat... that’s a _completely_ different troll.” She looks over to Dave, sniffing to make sure she is actually facing him, and says, “You better explain what’s going on, cool kid.”


End file.
